


Amid The Very Heavens

by TheSpectralDuke



Series: Reinette and Rhel'to [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Blow Jobs, Cunnilingus, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Lemon, Mention of Mercy Killing, NSFW, Not Beta Read, Sex In A Cave, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:15:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27665285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpectralDuke/pseuds/TheSpectralDuke
Summary: Reinette Clothilde takes one of her expeditions up to the Sea of Clouds to sketch the flora and fauna, her escape from the expectations of a traditionalist Ishgardian house. When a storm leaves her and her pilot Rhel'to stranded atop the islands for the night, their feelings prove deeper than either of them expected.(Set about a year after Heavensward, some minor spoilers for that expansion)
Relationships: Original Character/Original Character
Series: Reinette and Rhel'to [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2045083
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	Amid The Very Heavens

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to all the kind folks at the bookclub for help identifying what to call pieces of aiming sets and for reacting so kindly to the snippets of this.

The airship soared past the tallest spire of the Vault on a course they knew well, Ishgard's grey stones swiftly fading into the mist as they ascended. Walls of cloud just as gray soon replaced the surroundings they had left behind, heavy with snow as ever and chilling them to the bone even wrapped up against the elements. Even after four moons of voyages beyond the clouds, it always seemed a shock just how cold it grew beyond the city's reach.

Reinette stared out into the mist as best she could, clinging to the rigging as she hung close to the ship's edge. The airship wasn't large, fit for four people at best, but as usual it was just her and Rhel'to, the miqo'te engrossed in the wheel as ever. A twist of it made fins dip on one side of the airship and rise on the other, banking them around the peak that past journeys had taught him to expect even with the pervasive fog. Perhaps he even steered them free a little early, she thought, although it was hard to tell within the depths of the clouds.

Strands of auburn hair crossed her eyes when she turned back to what passed for a view in what amounted to the waves of the Sea of Clouds, a hand slowly growing browner by the expedition brushing them aside. Beneath her coat Reinette dressed for the wild, a jerkin and trousers that her mother had long dismissed as 'unbefitting' a scion of House Clothilde and the saint for which she was named both. A dress or armor would be more suitable, supposedly, Reinette mused with furrowed brow, though she failed to see how.

For his part Rhel'to wore his usual attire, a leather waistcoat of sorts that bared the laces of his white shirt and his dusky gray skin beneath, plain brown trousers and sturdy boots. The machinist caught her looking back at him and grinned with fangs rested on his lip, throwing her a salute that made her chuckle. When she had first entreated the Manufactory for help in taking her expeditions to a new frontier, the keeper of the moon had surprised her just with his presence, but this was their sixth voyage into the heavens now. Both his skills as a pilot and his keen aim with the revolver at his hip had proven more invaluable than she could have expected.

“Air's a bit unsettled,” Rhel'to commented above the wind. “I reckon a storm's brewing.”

Reinette frowned, moving closer toward him once they leveled out. His eyes stayed fixed ahead on the thinning fog a while before glancing back to her, the pale green of newborn shoots. As a girl she had been so surrounded by such colors when they ventured out into Coerthas, how on earth had her family expected her to pick the dull life of a noblewoman or the brutality of war over delighting in it all the time, she wondered in passing. “Are you sure?”

The miqo'te nodded, a strong gust making her grip the wheel to steady herself and ruffling his walnut-hued hair. “Sure as day, Lady Clothilde.”

“Reinette, please,” she insisted automatically, a purr of a chuckle leaving his throat. His lips parted enough for her to see his fangs, one broken from some fight she'd never gotten the details of out of him.

They broke the dense clouds at last and emerged into glorious sunshine, the heavens cornflower blue around them on all sides. The islands of the Sea of Clouds rose majestic as ever, _impossible_ as ever, solid stone floating just as easily as the gray carpet of mist above which they hung. Reinette hurried to the airship's prow to take it all in, just as excited as the first time Rhel'to had brought her up to this paradise. Cloudkin soared past just out of reach, a wild grin forming on the elezen's lips as she felt the warm sunlight brush on her ears. She looked back to see Rhel'to grinning just as widely, steering them toward the uncharted island she wished to explore. It lay some way away from the others, a little piece of mystery for them to delve into freely. It grew larger and larger by the moment, covered in grass the same green as the keeper's eyes and vibrant flowers, a great mound of rock at its heart rising to a spire like that they had passed when leaving Ishgard except natural and rugged in its beauty.

With surprising ease the pilot found them something of a berth on the rock, resting the airship down atop the grass. Gaelicats and their offspring danced in the air nearby and Reinette watched with a smile, careful not to startle the beastkin as she shucked off her coat in the warmer air. Though the wind was keen so high up, for now it was a gentle breeze nowhere near the storm Rhel'to foretold.

“Were you misleading me?” she asked with a wave about the sky. “Not a hint of a storm at all.”

Rhel'to chuckled deep in his throat while he checked the ship was secure, sliding down the boarding ramp for her. “My father taught me how to know when a storm's coming, Lady Clothilde-”

“Reinette.”

“And his lessons haven't been wrong yet,” he finished seamlessly.

“Then they still might be, one day,” the elezen chuckled as she all but skipped past him in her enthusiasm.

“Mayhap, but I wouldn't wager anything important on it,” the miqo'te laughed as he followed her. His tail twitched happily, like her own excitement was infectious. “We'd best be about it if we want to make it safely back to Ishgard.” His words barely registered as Reinette crept closer to the gaelicats, admiring the beautiful creatures from a crouch. They weren't anything she hadn't seen before, but they were so adorable that she had to resist the urge to take one for her own. No, though. They belonged up here, no matter what adventurers – _poachers_ – might think.

“However did you grow?” she wondered to herself, tucking loose auburn strands behind an ear, reaching for her satchel and the sketchbook within. She moved too quickly and one gaelicat mewled alarm, sending the pack scattering to the wind and pulling her lips into a frown.

“Too quick, Lady Clothilde?” Rhel'to said. She jumped right to her feet and almost smacked into him, stumbling back while the miqo'te gave her a bashful smile, tail falling mournfully toward his knees. “Pardon me. Forest habits die hard.”

Reinette eyed his feet. “How do you walk so quietly in boots?” As though to demonstrate the machinist paced from side to side, footsteps barely a whisper that she had to strain to hear at all. Without putting all her focus on doing so she could never have heard him.

“When you hunt, you learn to move quietly,” he shrugged apologetically. “Either that or you make do without meat. Trust me when I say that for a keeper in the wild, that's no way to live.”

The elezen nodded. “I wish I knew what it was like.”

Rhel'to frowned a little, the broken fang peeking past his lip. “Not an easy life, Lady Clothilde, believe me. Ishgard is far kinder to me than the Shroud was.” He laughed bitterly. “But enough old memories, we're here to explore and chart!” That they were, so she pulled out sketchbook and pencil and began her work. Flowers she had never seen before were drawn from every angle while the miqo'te watched from a distance, seemingly content to admire the scenery and see the noblewoman at work just as always. She had asked once if he wanted to take the airship away and fly off to Camp Cloudtop to pass the time with the garrison, but Rhel'to had refused, preferring to stay and make sure she was safe. And after all, his revolver had seen off that vundu ambush.

She shivered just at the memory of the warlike vanu vanu looming over her with knives at the ready. Her name shouted in Rhel'to's voice, drowned out by the roar of his handgonne before the beastman's chest bloomed in red. More shots had rung out, the impacts fierce in her ears, and the vundu had toppled dead before her. She remembered Rhel'to clinging her close even though she was a good head taller than him, turning her away from the corpse, shaking just as much as she had even though he had never been in danger.

“Are you well, Lady Clothilde?” Rhel'to's voice cut through her memories like the vundu's knife and she nodded after a confused moment, staring at the gaelikitten drawing she had completed before the fit of reverie took her.

“Just thinking, that's all,” Reinette murmured. “About the day you saved me.”

“Only what anyone would have done,” the keeper of the moon murmured, turning as though to flee her azure gaze. She wondered if his cheeks were flushed as red as they had been when she planted a kiss upon them in thanks that day.

“Indeed,” the elezen said softly. Whether she meant it even she could not say. “You never spoke of why you came to Ishgard, Rhel'to.”

Grass green eyes glanced back. “I tired of trying to fight Gridania and the elementals just to live my own life, so I thought the road offered me more freedom.” The miqo'te smiled.

Reinette hummed, flipping to a new page in her book as she crept away to seek out a paissa perched some way away. “Do you ever think you chose wrongly?”

“Never,” Rhel'to replied, voice quiet but firm as iron. She glanced back at him to see him gazing at her with a grin, his eyes wandering off toward the horizon as soon as she looked. She swore his cheeks seemed flushed, but she put it out of mind and began her sketch, taking in the paissa's plumage with a smile. This was where she belonged, putting Eorzea's wildlife in a form for all the star to view without the need to harm so much as a hair or feather. Not making inane small talk with any number of suitors in the name of securing a 'future for the house', nor spilling blood in the name of a war that had, it turned out, been built upon a lie. Reinette could not say she was sad to see the Dragonsong War's end, of course, nor to find that Ishgard's ancestors had been the first to spill blood. All her life she had wanted more than the icy dogma of warforged faith, where the pursuits of peacetime were tossed aside ever in the name of finding better ways to slay dragons. That was the Ishgard that saw her named after a dragon-slaying saint when her dreams strayed far closer to the example of Saint Shiva.

Mayhap not to the extent of _laying_ with a dragon, she thought wryly. Merely to admire and to record was more than enough to fulfill her childhood wishes, should a dragon ever allow her to record them as she recorded the gaelicats and the paissa. For most of her life such a wish strayed dangerously close to heresy so her childhood had been one of forbidding and scorning, trying to convince her either to make herself a suitable maid to be wed or else a knight who would win glory for House Clothilde. A broodmare or a butcher, Reinette thought, neither option had ever appealed to her one whit.

She wouldn't pretend men didn't _interest_ her, she had dallied with that servant in her youth after all, but she had no wish to be chained to a manor in Ishgard and bound by a husband's whims. And killing wasn't in her blood, even if she saw where it might be necessary. Another memory stirred, just a girl, led down to where a chocobo had fallen in its haste and shattered its bones. Her mother had pressed a knife in her hand and commanded her to _kill_ , even if it had been dressed up in pretty words. Ending its suffering, granting it the Fury's mercy, all euphemisms even the child Reinette saw through, as thin as the clouds. And even listening to its suffering, even seeing the poor bird's eyes full of pain, she hadn't been able to do it. She had tossed the knife aside crying, clutching at the chocobo until her disgusted mother yanked her away and slapped her for ruining her dress with its blood. Ser Arismont had done the deed in her stead and she had wept the rest of the day for the beautiful creature.

“You're full of thoughts today, Lady Clothilde.” Rhel'to's mirth cut through her memories and she blushed when she found his green eyes staring. The miqo'te tapped his foot almost impatiently, a purr of a chuckle ringing in the air while he looked over her shoulder. “As talented as ever in spite of your distractions, though.”

“Thank you,” Reinette replied, forcing a smile back at him. “How long have we been?”

“A few bells now?” he ventured with a glance toward the sun, a frown tipping his lips when he looked to the horizon. “But those clouds concern me.” When she looked she found them dark and foreboding, creeping closer by the moment.

“Might I have one more sketch?” she asked, indicating a pair of serpentine sanuwa off on a little peninsula some distance from where she knelt and he stood. The miqo'te clicked his tongue, eyeing the distant cloud.

“We should have time,” he judged. “But then we must make haste if we want to be safely back in Ishgard.”

“I will, I promise,” Reinette said, prowling closer to the majestic lime green winged serpents as quick as she dared. She reached the very edge of their peninsula, feeling eyes sweep over her but they seemed not to judge her a threat, simply basking in the sunlight. Carefully she sketched, trying to hurry at first but soon losing herself in their beauty. She traced scales with a smile, filling in their eyes with a hum and finishing their tails with a grin. They were hardly the most helpful of models, but then that was the beauty of nature at work, wasn't it? It just wouldn't be the same if they were sat perfectly still like they had been stuffed and mounted for her amusement.

Much as Rhel'to said she would not like the forest life and much as she might agree for parts of it, the hunting especially, Reinette found herself wondering what it would be like. She had ventured out into Coerthas both before and after the Calamity, and now to the Sea of Clouds, but her longing for the wild only seemed to grow the more of it she sampled. Even if she were to go into now peaceful Dravania she felt as though she would not be sated, nor that even seeing the Shroud from which her miqo'te protector had come would end her thirst to see more, smell more, taste _more_. She put the final touches to her sketch and turned only to find Rhel'to already rushing to her side. The wind blew fierce, sketchbook fluttering until she shoved it into her satchel roughly.

“We must needs leave!” Rhel'to cried above the onrushing gale, and she agreed with a nod, taking his hand as the machinist reached to pull her to her feet. Together they raced across green grass and flowers, her satchel slapping on her hip while she followed him. The wind grew fiercer and fiercer, the sun gone behind black clouds and a pall of rain drowning the beautiful skyscape. Droplets hailed down upon them as they ran, struggling against the screaming storm as levinbolts began to dye the islands stark white and leave their vision blurred.

She already knew even before they saw the airship that she had kept them too long. Mayhap Rhel'to had judged the storm wrong in its speed or mayhap she had been too engrossed in her work to realize their danger, but it was plain to her once they saw their vessel caught in the storm. It was anchored of course but Rhel'to might as well have forsaken that for all the good it did, the storm winds tossing the airship up off the rock then dashing it back down with enough force to tear fins and puncture its balloons. Cloth ripped and billowed wild in the gale.

Rhel'to turned to her, bracing himself against the wind. “Back!” he screamed over the howling. “There was a cave!” She nodded, the wind in her face made talking impossible, and made to turn and follow his lead. The gale at their backs made their trip perilous, knees trembling with the effort of staying upright while the storm engulfed them in its folds and sheets of rain drenched them right through their clothes. Soon enough Reinette shivered, but the cave loomed wide before them. Dark rock was lit with veins of green crystal, bright enough to act as beacons in the dark.

Ahead of her Rhel'to reached for the rock, but lightning flashed blindingly bright and the miqo'te flinched. Without him bracing against the wind it sent him tumbling, strong enough that he skidded on the grass, fingers clawing for a purchase he would not find in time. Desperately Reinette lunged for him, slamming hard on the grass herself and catching his hand in her own to wrench him back to her side. They lay beneath the rain a moment, digging fingers into the soil to pull themselves up, then grabbing rock even when sharp edges bit at their skin. Wearily the elezen and the miqo'te dragged themselves inside the cave, feeling the screaming wind leave them be even though its howling still rang in their ears like a banshee in the heavens.

“Thank you,” Rhel'to panted weakly, slumping down on the rock with his shoulders heaving.

“You may count us even,” Reinette smiled back, sitting beside him. “But I fear I have put us both in peril. Forgive-”

The keeper shook his head. “Tis my fault, Lady Clothilde. I wasn't sure if we had time, but I buried my doubts because...” He hesitated. “Because I wished to see you so happy a while longer.”

Reinette stared at him. “What?”

“Whenever we meet in Ishgard, Lady Clothilde, your shoulders slump and you always frown just a little,” Rhel'to explained, leaning back on his hands. “But up here in the Sea, you smile. Your eyes sparkle. And it's like all the weight leaves your shoulders.”

“Rhel'to...” she murmured, at a loss for words. “I... I had no idea.”

The miqo'te looked away from her, glancing about the cave. He reached for his own satchel, perhaps seeing her shiver, and retrieved a blanket from within. “No firewood, I'm afraid,” he said a little gruffly, as though he had given too much away and wished to put back the barrier of employer and employee. Even so he passed it to her and she gratefully wrapped it around herself, a welcome reprieve from the cold breeze that swirled around her.

“Surely you must be cold, Rhel'to.”

He shook his head. “You grow used to it in the winter months. I've had much worse than this, Lady Clothilde-”

“Call me Reinette,” she pressed. “Please. My _mother_ is Lady Clothilde, my _sister_ is Lady Clothilde. _Not me_.”

Rhel'to struggled with the thought a moment, fangs playing over his lips. Reinette shuffled a little closer and he eyed her warily. “La-,” her gaze made him stop, “Reinette, I will be fine, I assure you.”

“I will not see you turn into an icicle,” the elezen insisted, crawling to his side and wrapping the blanket around him. He was stiff as a board at her touch initially, slowly relaxing against her but keeping his head pointedly away from her shoulder. When they were standing his head was at her chest, and even sitting she was a good bit taller than him, his breath washing on her throat when he looked her way. Up so close she could admire the markings on his face more than ever, trace old scars with her eyes. He was so warm against her even through his leather, each breath making her skin tingle. He smelled of oil and metal, of course he did, but she found herself loving it more every time she breathed his scent deep.

“We'll be stuck here a while,” Rhel'to murmured. “At least until the storm subsides, and it will take time for a rescue party to launch afterwards. But the Manufactory know I flew up here and they at least know the general area we planned to go, so rest assured that help will come.” He fumbled for his satchel. “I brought a little food, not much, but it should be enough.” He handed her a few strips of salted meat, thin fare for sure, but the kind that kept. Doubtless that was important for an adventurer.

“What made you choose the Manufactory?” she asked while they nibbled.

“When I came through the Gates of Judgment,” he murmured a little wistfully, “I was amazed by it all. To see such a beautiful city... and yet I saw commoners suffering in the Brume while the nobility lorded it over them. I saw inquisitors and corrupt Temple Knights running rampant, even with the Warrior of Light doing what she could to help and end the war.” The miqo'te paused to chew, Reinette's eye resting on his broken fang a moment. “Stephanivien didn't look down on me, he welcomed me with open arms, and I believe in his cause. To make Ishgard equal, just as the Lord Speaker wishes to. And finally I found something I was good at when I could tinker with machines.”

Reinette chewed in silence a while. “I would rather have been born a commoner sometimes.”

Rhel'to looked at her curiously. “You'd trade your life of luxury for one of toil and uncertainty?”

“Is it so unbelievable?” she sighed. “I acknowledge that I've lived a privileged life up until now, devoid of true struggle, but I feel as though my every option has been dealt out to me rather than chosen with my own hands. At least, until I insisted on doing this, and I could only do so because the Warrior of Light ended the war. Finally I can admire dragons rather than being compelled to hate them and fear them, and even so still my parents bid me be a wife or be a knight.”

“And what do _you_ want?” the keeper asked, finishing his meat.

Reinette fumbled for her sketchbook, pulling it out and venturing her arms out of the blanket. Cold air bathed her skin while she flipped through the pages, showing him drawing after drawing by faint crystal light. “To _travel_ ,” she murmured. “The Shroud, La Noscea, Thanalan, Dravania, Gyr Abania, all of them and beyond, I want to visit. To see all they have to offer, to admire their creatures in all their splendor and make records of them that aren't stuffed corpses or furs or anything of the sort.” Passion crept into her voice, growing hotter by the word. “Ever since I was a girl out studying flowers in Coerthas, that was what I wanted, Rhel'to. Not to kill anything or hate anything, just to admire it all. Not that my family understand, not my mother, not my father, not my Fury-sworn knight of a sister.”

“If I were them, I would be proud,” he ventured. “Not try to stamp out something you love so.”

“You said you tired of fighting Gridania,” Reinette said softly. He had drawn a little closer, his face brushing on her shoulder, and though he drew a little away she was still so keenly aware of his warm body against hers. Old feelings stirred, old desires she had shoved aside for so long, only sating with her own fingers after her 'indiscretion' had seen a boy whipped and tossed out into the snow.

“They dubbed me a poacher,” Rhel'to scoffed, chuckling. “As though I went around spearing deer for the fun of it. No, I killed only what I needed to eat. I... most times, I tried not to kill at all.” His voice was a whisper, barely louder than the storm's howls.

The elezen looked at him with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I said to make do without meat was no way for a keeper to live, but I lived that way often,” he said, eyes lost in a haze of memory. “I was never much good at killing. Too bad at throwing the spears so I'd either miss or...” He frowned and shuddered. “Joye trained me up, straightened my aim, but even so I'm not much of a fighter so I was happy just to fly the airships back and forth.”

Reinette's teeth found her lip, biting gently while she considered. “But the day the vundu attacked me, every bullet you fired-”

“I couldn't let you get hurt,” the miqo'te whispered gruffly, trying to turn away even though she could tell he hated to look away from her. “Not ever, but especially not when you were in a place like this where you were so happy, Lady... Reinette.” Understanding began to bloom in her mind, warm and bright and wonderful, brilliant enough to push back the storm's howls.

“Rhel'to,” she breathed, sketchbook laid gently down so her arms could reach. He stiffened at her touch, shaking his head.

“You are _Lady_ Clothilde, of high birth,” the keeper hissed bitterly. “And I am lowborn, a commoner, a foreigner... a _miqo'te_ , at that. Nothing good can come of it, Lady-”

“Reinette,” she whispered. “Please, Rhel'to...”

“House Clothilde would never accept me, no matter what you say,” Rhel'to said with an aching look at her. “Don't _tempt_ me, please-”

“Do you think I _care what they think_?” Reinette pressed fiercely, trying to embrace him even as he struggled to keep her arms at bay. “I've been happier up here with you these past moons than any time since I was a little girl, Rhel'to! I was a fool not to realize it.” Her hand found his cheek and the miqo'te softened when her thumb brushed on his skin.

“We aren't meant to be,” he protested weakly. “I was happy enough to just help you find your moments of happiness away from Ishgard. I never expected any more than that.”

“Let me give you more, Rhel'to,” the elezen murmured, an ilm away from him. “I want to do this, no matter what they think, no matter what they say. All they can take from me are my shackles.”

“They would stone me for daring to lay a finger on you, Reinette,” he said in a hollow voice, near mad with how he denied himself.

“You said Stephanivien made you believe in him, in making Ishgard equal,” Reinette said, receiving a hesitant nod. “If you want me, then don't let moldering traditions stop us.” She pulled him closer as he stopped tugging against her, their lips so close, their eyes locked together.

“Thank you for saving me,” Rhel'to breathed against her.

“I'd be lost without you,” the auburn-haired woman smiled back, and made the final push. Their lips met, hesitantly at first as he swallowed his last objections and she retraced the steps she'd walked with a servant years before. His hands found her arms, fingers clenched like claws as he ran them up to her shoulders and gripped her tight. The blanket slipped as they swayed back and forth in their passion, the warmth building in her loins finally allowed to ignite in earnest with the touch of his fangs to her teeth while their kiss deepened. Whatever they did Ishgard need never know, but there was a part of her that wanted all the star to know every deep detail and to shatter her chains in a single night with him. The kiss left her giddy and breathless when it ended, both of them panting against each other with his head tipping to her collar and her lips brushing on an ear. She kissed at the walnut hair, feeling his heavy breathing at her breast, drowning in the scent of metal and oil that clung to him but loving every second.

“I love you,” Rhel'to sighed breathlessly. “Menphina knows how I love you, Reinette.” The elezen lifted his face to hers and let another kiss burn her own feelings against him, her hands exploring his back through his wet shirt while his own began to venture beyond the safety of her shoulders into more intimate territory. One caressed her side with fingertips brushing a breast until she whined a little, the other descending to cup her hip. How _warm_ he was, warmer even than the blanket, the cold of cave and storm banished utterly. Even once their lungs could bear the deep kisses no longer, still they lavished one another, lips pressed to noses and cheeks, chins and jaws. Rhel'to descended to her neck, bathing the hollow of her throat in his love while she poured affection on his ears until he purred.

“I love you,” she breathed back into the shell of his ear and heard his purring grow fiercer in answer. The sound of it made her heart dance and her blood flow warmer, alight with longing now she finally realized herself what her feelings truly were. He lunged up to take her lips once again and she received him eagerly, pulling him down to the cave floor with her. The cold rock chilled her back through the blanket, but all she focused on was his warmth, his taste, his touch. Her legs slipped apart to let him press every ilm of himself against her, Reinette moaning into his mouth at the feel of his growing bulge against her neglected womanhood. The keeper rocked against her and the friction only made her folds soak faster, hot kisses stoking the fire in her core. The elezen pulled back for breath with one hand petting his ear and the other stroking at his tail, so the miqo'te dived lower to peck at her neck over and over.

“Gods bless this storm,” he sighed against her throat. “I dreamed of this, Reinette, but not one dream could compare to having you for real.”

“Give me more,” she whimpered. “Oh, I want all of you, Rhel'to.” He suckled on her skin and the elezen moaned his name, casting her cries out for the storm to hear. Years had passed since anyone had touched her as he touched her and she would swear by all the gods that existed that the keeper of the moon was the most perfect of lovers. His hands played over her damp jerkin and rested on buttons a moment until a nod gave him permission to begin unfastening them. Knuckles brushed over her breasts in passing and Reinette's breath hitchedat how they rubbed over her nipples, a little whine leaving her at another thrust of his hips into hers. Tentatively her hand slipped to the base of his tail and his purring grew louder at her touch.

“Oh, right there,” the miqo'te breathed when her thumb pressed to his tailbone. “Yes, oh Reinette.” She rubbed circles on the sensitive spot until he whined her name, the last button of her jerkin coming undone. Beneath her shirt was still mostly dry, his own soaked enough for her to see the carpet of hair that lay across his lithe chest. Letting go of his tail and receiving a needy little whimper that she shushed with a kiss to his ears, she began to undo his belt then his waistcoat, his revolver slid aside in its holster as she shucked the coat off his body. Fingers rubbed over his chest, tracing patterns in his chest hair before Reinette began unlacing him. Slowly translucent cloth gave way to transparent air, letting her admire him in all his splendor with his shirt tossed somewhere under the glow of green crystal. “Please let me see you too,” he pleaded when her fingers caressed through damp curls, rubbing over his stiffening nipples before burying in his hair as though trying to stain herself with his scent forever.

Reinette began to move as he bade but Rhel'to's patience burned to its wick before she could, the miqo'te lunging for her shirt. Laces tensed at his touch, threatening to simply rip asunder with how furiously he untied them. The elezen almost wished for it but was denied, the shirt leaving her body in one piece, balled up and thrown into the gloom. Only a thin camisole separated her skin from his hands when he cupped her modest breasts, green eyes fixed on her face while his thumbs found her nipples and softly circled. Reinette whined at his touch, head tipping back and letting him kiss at her throat once again.

“Rhel'to,” she mewled as his fingers tightened. The keeper's hands were gentle at her chest but even so he all but flew her into the heavens with his touch. Feather-light kisses descended past her collarbone to seek her cleavage, one finger tugging the camisole down on her left to let Rhel'to's mouth move unimpeded to her nipple. Like a babe he suckled on her and the elezen wailed in delight, clutching him tight to her bust and rocking her hips against his in a steady rhythm. The miqo'te worshiped at her chest like she was a goddess made flesh beneath him, his delicate touch driving her mad. One pink nipple was left pebbled to its peak and Rhel'to left her a moment to tug the camisole up and off, setting it aside and diving back to her other breast. Reinette trembled under his ministration, old familiar feeling roused from when the servant boy had done the same in her youth, but this was better by far.

The elezen leaned up to kiss and suckle at his ears, teasing his purrs lower and lower, stroking his hair with one hand and stretching as best she could for his tail with the other. Impishly he swayed his hips into her touch, letting her clutch at one buttock with a chuckle that bathed her nipple in his breath. She dug her thumb into his spot again and the miqo'te groaned, deepening his suckles until Reinette wailed his name. Echoes sang back from all around, louder than the howl of the wind and the roar of thunder.

“I want to see all of you,” Rhel'to panted, rising from her chest to stare with wild eyes into her own. “Please.” He shuffled back in a rush and Reinette glimpsed his tented trousers, the sight enough to make her shiver with something other than cold as the blanket fell to the stone around her. The miqo'te undid her trousers in that same rush, peeling them down her legs but leaving her sodden panties and her black stockings in place even as he discarded the bottoms. His kisses trailed up her legs, dancing from one to the other, his tail swaying over his back as he prowled up toward her apex with raw desire alight in his irises. A finger traced the line of her slit through the white fabric and Reinette moaned shamelessly, relishing the sparkle of want in his eyes that gleamed even when his mouth descended between her thighs. Kisses danced up pale skin and onto soaking cloth, sending her crashing back onto the blanket when Rhel'to's lips found her labia. He kissed her up and down over and over, charting her folds carefully before a brush of his tongue sent her a step closer to heaven itself.

“Please, Rhel'to,” she whimpered, burying her hands in his hair, trying to press him deep into her. The miqo'te's chuckle reverberated through her core as he once again drew back, his hands moving from where they cupped her thighs to slip into the hem of her panties. Slowly he tugged them down, savoring the moment where he laid her utterly bare, a gasp escaping him even as she felt cool air brush on her needy petals. After that there was no more wait to be had, panties down her legs and off in but a moment, his finger spreading her pink sex to his gaze.

“You are beautiful, Reinette,” he purred softly. “In every way you are the most wonderful woman I have had the fortune to meet.”

“Thank you for your poetry, Rhel'to,” she breathed, lifting her head to give him a smile. “But please, put your mouth to another use for me.”

He laughed and grinned before burying his face in her once again. In but moments he had her mewling with how his fingers and tongue worked together, the latter curling against her walls, the former finding her nub where it nestled and beginning to tease it out. Reinette cried his name again and again, hips rocking against his face, legs hooking on his shoulders to try and push his wonderful mouth deeper into her heat. He lapped at her so thirstily she was sure he had dreamed of it for moons, glad to sate his need at last while he put an end to her own. The miqo'te's free hand danced up across her smooth belly to find her breasts, taking one and pawing clumsily at it. Rough as his fingers were, still they poured more tinder into her flame and Reinette cried out louder with every grope, every lick, every brush of his fingertips on her insides. Her hands worked in his hair in turn, petting his ears, finding the spots that made his purrs hum against her sex and teasing them until the miqo'te whimpered into her core.

“Rhel'to, oh _gods_!”

“Let it out, Reinette,” he breathed huskily, rising from his work for just a moment before returning in earnest. His lips took her clit and he suckled on the pearl, making levin dance up and down her spine, white lights blazing across her eyes as she wailed his name louder and louder with every brush of his tongue on her nub. At last she could hold on no longer, surrendering to the whirlwind of her climax and bucking into his face one more time. Her fingers clenched in his hair, toes curling and back bending at the force of her orgasm. Her fingers could never compare to the feeling of his mouth and tongue, and her climax easily put any of her past ones to shame correspondingly.

The elezen came back to herself panting like she had sprinted for malms, skin bathed in sweat more than rain now. Despite the cold pressing against her she felt nothing but warm, nerves still tingling with her afterglow while her lover gently rose to her lips. The miqo'te's face glistened in the crystal light with her release, his grin giddy regardless as she kissed him and tasted her own bitter nectar. Their hands quested for each other desperately, his rubbing on her back, hers descending to test his bulging trousers and find his cock hard as the stone on which they sat. He groaned at her touch, hips bucking on instinct into her stroking fingers.

“May I?” she asked, finding the buttons of his trousers. Rhel'to had nothing but a groan and a furious nod to offer in answer, his eyes lidded and his head tipped back. One hand stayed on his member while the other struggled with his bottoms until she was forced to concede defeat and unbutton with both hands. That won a chuckle from him that a kiss silenced, even though she giggled herself as they parted. She felt so at ease with him even though the storm raged beyond their little sanctuary of stone and crystal, even though she wore nothing but her stockings with every ilm of her body bare to his eyes.

And by the Fury, how _wonderful_ it was.

Trousers gave way down his legs, his smalls following in a rush with both of them eager to continue. The miqo'te tugged his garments off with her and leaned back, letting her azure eyes wander over his dusky gray skin. Reinette ran her gaze up his legs, admiring the toned muscle, imagining how he could pounce on her once more in a moment. The thought made her throb with arousal, already rising back to ready despite her orgasm. Mayhap that was how it was when you had naught but your own hand to offer the need for sex for year upon year. She had come about this far and no further with the servant boy, in fact her mother had found them with Reinette about to lay her mouth on his cock.

She turned away from bitter past to joyous present by admiring Rhel'to's own shaft. To her limited experience she found him pleasing, what seemed a decent girth, a length she struggled to gauge in the gloom before conceding that in the heat of the moment, she wanted nothing more than to touch it. Fingers brushed on his uncut tip, gently teasing the foreskin down to lay bare a head soaked in his pre. Curiously Reinette leaned in and licked at him, the taste of salt on her tongue but a wonderfully perverse thrill running through her at both his agonized groan and the thought that her parents, Ishgard's _high society_ , would be scandalized were they to know.

“Oh Reinette, by Menphina...” he panted when she kissed and lapped at his cock again and again. She was so hungry for him all of a sudden, spurred on by that first decadent taste, kissing from tip to hair-shrouded balls and back up again. Rhel'to bucked his hips up at her face, falling to lie flat and writhing on the cold stone.

“Am I your first?” she asked, the question suddenly in her mind.

“Yes,” the miqo'te groaned. “Reinette!” The elezen took him into her mouth cautiously, guided only by the expectations placed on her by erotic novels giggling ladies had let her glance at in dark corners. She found the reality rather different, struggling against the urge to gag on his length. He wasn't overwhelmingly large but even so her reflex to choke left her doing just that, hacking spittle onto the miqo'te's shaft while he leaned up in a panic to caress her.

“S-sorry,” the auburn-haired woman whimpered, gasping to find her wind.

“It can wait,” Rhel'to cooed. “You're doing so wonderfully already, Reinette.”

“I want to,” she insisted, azure eyes watering. His fingers came to gently brush brimming tears away. “Please. I want you to feel as you made me feel,Rhel'to.”

Slowly the miqo'te nodded. “Take it slowly, love.” _Love_. Oh, _gods_ , hearing him say it was more a blessing than a thousand prayers in Halone's name. He leaned back but remained cautious as once again she descended upon him, taking him into her mouth once more. She struggled against her own instincts, forcing herself to keep him there and suck upon his length, his groans praise in her ears, his hands in her hair like the Mothercrystal's light upon her. Reinette followed his advice and slowly moved up and down, lips passing a little beyond where blood-gorged head gave way to vein-marked shaft, then back up again, up and down, up and down in a rhythm. His hips thrust into her and she almost choked on him again, but a gasp for breath left her able to continue as he petted her ears as she had his. “Oh Menphina, you are _perfect_ , love.”

Reinette hummed her approval on his cock and Rhel'to whimpered, one of her hands circling his hips to find his tail. She teased at his sensitive spot again and he bucked against her face in earnest, unable to stop himself, gasping apologies that she accepted by holding him in her mouth as long as she could. “Oh, Rhel'to,” she panted when at last she surfaced for breath, stroking him as she gasped for breath. The miqo'te's head stayed tipped back and he moaned her name again and again, lost in the throes of his pleasure. Smiling giddily the elezen took him a third time with a deep breath, thumb rubbing on his tailbone, other hand caressing and squeezing his balls in case that satisfied him more. Determined she sought to take more of him in her mouth, sure she could manage his whole length if only she could overcome the urge to gag on his shaft.

Movement blurred at the top of her eyes, Rhel'to's voice coming in a panicked moan. “Love, oh _love_ , _I_ -” His words gave way to a cry of ecstasy with a final thrust and hot thick fluid gushed into Reinette's mouth in spurts. His release caught her off guard even though she tried to swallow it down, choking on him until she had to let him go and gasp for breath. Free of her mouth his seed splattered across tanned skin, staining her face, throat and breast in dripping white while she hacked the same up. Droplets clung to his skin in the wake of her coughing and once more he caressed at her hair, soothing her through it while he trembled with his own afterglow.

“F-forgive me,” she spluttered in time with his own desperate apology, making both of them smile once they lay still. For a moment elezen and miqo'te held a loose embrace, bare and intimate and content beyond measure. Reinette felt his warm cum drip over her skin, oozing onto her breasts from her collarbone, falling from her chin.

“Let me clean you, love,” Rhel'to breathed and the elezen moaned at the feel of tongue on her skin. Like a cat given cream he lapped his own seed from her body, starting at her face with a brush of lips on hers, sharing the taste of him with her once again.

“Oh, Rhel'to, _love_...” He purred happily up at her while he continued, cleaning every drop from her with languid strokes of his tongue. Even once he had her breasts pristine he continued to lavish them with love, making her legs slip open on instinct as he rekindled the flame in her loins. Reinette stroked his hair and rubbed at his tail and rump, craving him, adoring him just as he surely felt exactly the same for her. “I love you,” she whimpered at the brush of tongue on sensitive nipple.

“I would follow you to the very end of the star, love,” the miqo'te breathed, resting his mouth right over her heart. Every word made it flutter so much that she was sure it would ever beat in time with him rather than its own rhythm. “You said you wished to travel, Reinette? Let me come with you, _please_. Let me see all that you see, feel all that you feel, walk every path you walk.” She swelled with greater love for him, yes, yes, _yes_ , never leave me, she sang without words, pressing him down onto the cave floor with a hungry kiss that promised everything he asked for, everything she could ever offer him.

“Please,” she breathed between his lips. “Make love with me.” Her hand found his cock already rising steadily back to full mast, rubbing her fingertips over his hardening head until the miqo'te groaned.

“Are you sure, Reinette? I...” His eyes fluttered closed, fangs playing at his lip uncertainly.

Reinette couldn't stifle her giggle. “We've come so far, Rhel'to, and you want to stop at the final hurdle?” She brushed her lips to his, guiding his hand to her dampening folds and letting him touch her just as she continued to touch his manhood.

“Is this your first time?” the keeper breathed against her neck, fingers sinking into her until she moaned.

“Oh, yes, Rhel'to...” She'd meant to do it with the servant boy, one day, but her mother's whip had seen that idea off. And she'd never had an opportunity since until that very moment. His fingers quested inside her, seeking something deep in her folds. “Ah, Rhel'to, it broke when I was a girl. Chocobo riding lessons,” she giggled at his puzzled face.

The miqo'te smiled back. “I thought something like it, I assure you.” He pecked her lips, gently pressing her down to lay back on the blanket while he positioned himself between her legs. His tail swayed over to brush on her thigh, hands coming to rest at her sides as he leaned up to kiss her again. The miqo'te's hips brushed hers and Reinette whined for him into his mouth, stroking at his ears a moment before he slipped back down. “Ready, love?” His head brushed on her labia and the elezen groaned, trying to shuffle closer, trying to put him inside her.

“Please, Rhel'to, I am,” she begged, staring at him as longingly as she could. For a moment he seemed frozen, transfixed by the intensity of her loving gaze with that giddy smile on his lips, only the stroking of his tail across her leg to tell her he still moved.

“Menphina herself must have ordained this,” he breathed as he rubbed his cock head up and down her slit to wet it, teasing more whimpers from Reinette's throat. “Oh, _gods_ _I love you_.” She babbled the words back as Rhel'to slid slowly into her, feeling her folds part for him and his hardness brush on all her petals. He claimed her flower as carefully as she sketched the wildlife, watchful for the slightest hint of pain on her end. Rusty muscles ached as his touch stimulated them from their slumber, Reinette clenching her inner walls about him and relishing the groan she tore from his lips. Deeper and deeper into her he sank, making her his and she could not have been happier in any way to let him do it. They both breathed huskily and heavily when their hips brushed, her petals at his hilt, his body bent over hers with her legs coming up to brush her shins against the small of his back. They waited a while, still, basking in the feeling of joining as lovers did for the first time in each of their lives.

“I'm ready,” she whispered, seeing his eyes glow in the crystal light and feeling him move inside her. The elezen moaned and cried, clinging tight to her lover as he began to thrust in and out of her virgin sex. Rhel'to moved slowly at first, letting her find his rhythm then gradually rutting faster and faster. Tanned skin brushed on ashen gray again and again, his head falling to her breasts and burying them in kisses and suckles while they made love in earnest. Her every nerve felt ablaze with burning love, desperate to touch him and communicate her feelings in every way. Her fingers scraped on his skin again and again, a new note pulled from her mouth every time the keeper of the moon bottomed out inside her. It was clumsy and awkward as it was sure to be for two so new to these heights of pleasure, but Reinette embraced it with all her might. She buried kisses in his hair and once more bathed herself in the scent of him, hoping that when they returned to Ishgard she would smell of him and he of her so that all might know what they were.

“Reinette!” he cried, voice singing back in a dozen echoes off the rocks. “Oh, Menphina, so- _oh_!” His hips slapped against hers now, tail lashing wildly in the throes of his passion. Though he took her more fiercely than before she still felt he was gentle, his kisses brief but feathery, his suckles never deep enough to mark. A pang of longing rang through her at that thought and she tipped her head to his ear with a whimper, suckling on just the tip until her lover groaned into her breast.

“Mark me, Rhel'to, love,” she panted into his hair, breathing in his heady scent like he was the finest flower. “Even just a little, please.” He hesitated, bright green eyes glancing up to seek further approval. Reinette's voice was lost to a wail as he at last found her spot, head nodding desperately before she surrendered to the need to just fall breathlessly on the blanket and give in to her pleasure. She felt teeth brush on her breast as his suckle deepened enough to bruise, the broken fang scraping a sharp edge over sensitive flesh until the elezen cried out. Even the pain only accentuated the pleasure he bathed her in, transcendent and majestic beyond her wildest dreams of what sex felt like. Her legs tightened around his back, pulling him as deep into her as he could possibly go while she laid her hands on his shoulders and caressed the miqo'te lovingly, mewling at every throb through her breast as he made his mark on her.

Rhel'to drew back to let her inspect his work, Reinette pulling her breast up to find a patch of purple and red left below her nipple where her clothes would normally cover. Only she and he would know it was there and the thought made her loins burn hotter still. Oh, she was so _close_ , her earlier release onto his tongue doing nothing to make her second arrive any slower. Rhel'to panted and groaned so fiercely that she was sure he too approached his end, both of them raw and virgin like untrained runners trying a marathon.

“Oh, my love,” she whimpered, just holding his gaze before shifting their position to let their lips brush with him still thrusting into her. “Ah, I cannot last much longer.”

Rhel'to shook his head, groaning as he took her to the hilt and made her cry his name into his mouth. “So _close_ , Reinette...” An unspoken question danced on his lips, an unwelcome but prudent concern. “Should I...”

“In me, _please_ ,” she insisted in strained tones, so breathless, so unable to hold on. All Reinette could do was cling onto him and feel him bury his face at her breast once more, kissing her harder as his climax crept up on him. They both were soaked in sweat now, any thought of cold long banished by the heat of being so close and making sweet passionate love, their skin glistening under the light of the crystals.

“Reinette, _Twelve_ , I'm going to-” Her legs tightened around him, arms clinging to his back even as the miqo'te's voice broke into wails and cries. Her name sounded sweeter than it ever had when it poured from his lips onto her breast, his seed splashing into her core as though trying to warm her further from the inside out. Even with all he had spilled earlier he had much and more still to give, soaking her loins in his cum, each thrust slower than the last and his breath coming in hot heavy pants against her skin. Exhausted he slumped to his end just as her own climax crashed upon her, clinging to her like she was his rock amid the storm, his tail rested against her hip as she rocked against him. The faint crystal light gave way to blinding white, she was in heaven with her lover inside her, surely the very gods were smiling down upon them to have blessed them so.

All Reinette could pray in her throes was Rhel'to's name, more wonderful than any other, more divine than any god's, kinder to her aching throat than any name that left acid in her mouth. Her hands danced madly across his limp body, feeling him breathe against her belly with her breasts as his impromptu pillow. She soaked his hips and cock in her release, she was sure, just as he left her laden with his seed, but as she came down from the heights of heaven she still felt as though in paradise when he wearily lifted his head to give her that giddy smile.

“Oh, Reinette,” he sighed lovingly as he slipped out of her. Seed and slick dripped down her thighs to surely stain the blanket, but all the elezen cared about was the miqo'te cuddling up to her side. His head lay next to hers, her legs sticking out a good way past his as he brought his lips to her own. Kissing gently, panting softly between each brush of their lips, they just lay atop the blanket a while and listened to the wind. It was calmer now, Reinette knew not how long their lovemaking had taken but when she glanced at the cave entrance she found the black and silver of night where before the storm it had been late afternoon at most. Winter in Ishgard cut the days so short, she mused with a sigh, the cold slowly closing in without the throes of passion to ward it off.

“Let me clean you, love,” she breathed, a touch of fingers to his flaccid length finding seed still stuck to him.

“And I you,” the keeper smiled back. He turned himself around, his head between her legs, hers at his hips, tongues washing seed and slick from their skin even with the sharp taste of sweat mingled in. He washed all around her sex and thighs even long after she had lapped his member clean, only returning to lay his head in the crook of her neck a while after her head lay still. They lay in silence a while, drawing the blanket close around them to ward off the cold.

“I used to sleep in caves like this before,” Rhel'to murmured to her. “When I was in the Shroud. So cold. So lonely.” He grinned that giddy grin and her heart fluttered at the sight. “You make such a difference, Reinette. Thank all the Twelve for bringing us together.” She kissed him and nuzzled her face against his hair, brushing more kisses over his ear until he sighed in contentment. “What will we do come the morrow?”

“We go on like this, of course,” Reinette whispered, pressing another kiss to his forehead. “My family will accept you or else they are my family no longer. Just as they will accept _me_ as I am, or else the same.”

He looked up at her with hesitant joy. “Reinette, I can't ask you to cast aside your title, your inheritance, all of that just for _me_. I'm not...”

“You are worthier than any of them,” the elezen replied, voice hot and fierce now. “No title, no inheritance and certainly no cold stone building could ever give me the happiness I find with you and the wild, Rhel'to. I would trade it all for a life with you in a heartbeat and never once look back.”

Tears brimmed in the green eyes and she kissed at his wonderful, adorable face over and over, even if they were tears of joy still she kissed them away. “And what of the world? Do you not know how they would treat us even in Limsa Lominsa? They will scorn us so long as we are together, even more so should by some miracle we should ever have a child together.” She shivered at that thought, bearing a child was something she had never seen herself doing, and even the thought of giving birth to a baby they conceived together gave her some pause. But even so, she knew her answer.

“Can you expect me to just pack my feelings back inside my chest and carry on as though we did not just make love, Rhel'to?” Reinette asked gently. “I could not bear it. I could never do it. No matter what comes upon us for this, I will bear it gladly to be with you.”

“So will I,” he whispered huskily, and before any more words could be spoken they were kissing hot and fiercely again. No more words needed to be said, their love burning hotter than Ifrit's inferno, more unyielding than Titan's earth, more passionate than Garuda's storms. It was a perfect jewel more valuable than any in Ul'dah's treasuries, and it was _theirs_ and _theirs alone_. Their lips parted and they stared into each other, every facet of their love shining in eyes that glowed with the light of the crystals around them. Mayhap the Mothercrystal _did_ look down and smile, Reinette mused, and mayhap the Twelve did as well.

“I love you,” they breathed into each other as they slowly drifted to slumber in loving arms. The cave cradled them in its embrace high above Eorzea, the light of the crystal shining down upon their slumbering bodies, their scattered clothes, and the sketchbook that had ultimately brought them together. Come what may on the morrow, come the anger of family, come the scorn of Ishgard, they would weather it all, for they had one another as a rock no storm could break.

Amid the very heavens, Reinette and Rhel'to lay in their embrace and whispered each others' names in their sleep all through the night.


End file.
